No King in Israel (28)

Joseph had two sons during his glory years in Egypt, Ephraim and Manasseh. When his father Jacob was old and full of years, he blessed the two boys and adopted them as his own sons, meaning that Joseph effectively received the birthright in his generation, the double portion of Jacob’s inheritance that Reuben, his older brother, had forfeited by sleeping with his father’s concubine. In Canaan, Ephraim and Manasseh grew to be among Israel’s most powerful and numerous tribes, and Manasseh held territory on both sides of the Jordan.

We have previously mentioned irony in Judges: there’s lots and lots of it. We come to more of it today. The last chapter of Jephthah’s story involves conflict between two brother tribes.

II. Twelve Judges in Chronological Order (continued)

8. Jephthah (continued)

Judges 12:1-6 — Civil War

“The men of Ephraim were called to arms, and they crossed to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, ‘Why did you cross over to fight against the Ammonites and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house over you with fire.’ And Jephthah said to them, ‘I and my people had a great dispute with the Ammonites, and when I called you, you did not save me from their hand. And when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?’ Then Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck Ephraim, because they said, ‘You are fugitives of Ephraim, you Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim and Manasseh.’ And the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, ‘Let me go over,’ the men of Gilead said to him, ‘Are you an Ephraimite?’ When he said, ‘No,’ they said to him, ‘Then say Shibboleth,’ and he said, ‘Sibboleth,’ for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell.”

A Little Ephraimite History

In Joshua 17, the tribe of Ephraim complained to Joshua that the territory allotted to them in Canaan was insufficient for their numbers. Joshua advised them to go up into the forests and clear ground for themselves that belonged to the Perizzites and the Rephaim. Ephraim responded that they could not drive out the Canaanites in the plain, who had iron chariots. Joshua told them to carry on. They were a numerous people, he reasoned, and would eventually drive out the Canaanites if they persisted. The first chapter of Judges tells us they were unsuccessful in that despite Joshua’s encouragement. Ephraim then lived in the hills, and the Canaanites lived among them.

From the beginning, then, Ephraim was a disgruntled tribe with a chip on its shoulder.

Fourth Time Not the Charm

In Judges 3, Ehud sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim after killing the king of Moab. Ephraim responded, coming down from the hills, seizing the fords of the Jordan and killing 10,000 Moabites when they tried to escape home across the river. The Jordan formed a natural north-south barrier that lent itself to such tactics, but we might also consider them brutal. Moab was not one of the Canaanite nations God called Israel to exterminate. Rather, they were distant relatives of Israel. War is never a lovely exercise, but murdering stragglers as they try to escape to their homes is a little on the cold-blooded side. But that was Ephraim, and these were rough times.

In Judges 5, the Ephraimites were one of many tribes credited for following Barak to victory over Sisera. Due to the location of their tribal allotment, they probably played a similar role in that conflict. Then, in Judges 7, when Gideon called on them, Ephraim once again came down from the hills, held the fords of the Jordan, trapping the fleeing Midianites and killing two of their princes, then grumbling that Gideon had not given them a more significant role in the conflict.

A Pattern Developing

Can you see a pattern developing here? These events were years apart, but Ephraim was always the last to the fight, the first to grumble, and quite happy to use their superior numbers to capture and kill men who had already given up fighting and were running away. They served a useful role in Israel’s wars, but it was always batting cleanup rather than being in the starting lineup. Now, at the beginning of chapter 12, Ephraim is not only grumbling that Jephthah had not called them out to battle Ammon, but threatening the life and home of Israel’s victorious judge. “We will burn your house over you with fire.”

Straight from victory over a foreign enemy to a totally unnecessary civil war. Bear in mind that Jephthah and his Gileadites were part of the Transjordan branch of the tribe of Manasseh. This was not just an Israelite civil war, but also a civil war between the children of Joseph’s two sons. It should never have happened. But Ephraim disdained authority, and they refused to accept the rule of a man God was blessing.

The Objection

Jephthah replies to the complaint that he had in fact called Ephraim out to the battle, and that Ephraim had failed to respond. On the one hand, nothing in the narrative to date suggests this actually occurred. Perhaps Jephthah was lying to cover himself. On the other, apart from the foolish vow that victimized his own daughter, the writer of Judges has given us little reason to question Jephthah’s character. Perhaps binding himself with a vow was the result of panic at realizing Ephraim was not likely to be any help to him. Moreover, nothing in Ephraim’s history to date suggests they were inclined to be first in line when called to battle. I suspect Jephthah’s story was true. If he could not cite times and circumstances to prove his case, it’s unlikely he would have claimed to have called out Ephraim and been disappointed.

There was something else going on here as well. Threatening God’s man of the hour with burning him to death in his own home seems extreme. It’s not unlikely the Ephraimites were staging a coup against the new leader of Israel, and using a fake provocation as their excuse.

In any case, the result was civil war. When it says Ephraim “crossed over”, presumably the writer means “crossed over the Jordan from the west into Gilead”. This was the second invasion of Gilead in a very short period, and we can hardly fault Jephthah for repelling it. After all, he did not instigate the conflict.

Reaping What You Sow

Twenty foreign cities is a fairly large number, though the book of Judges never spells out precisely how many Ammonites died in battle with Jephthah’s army as he moved into their territory. It merely records that he struck them “a great blow” and that they were “subdued” before Israel. It would be ironic if the 42,000 Ephraimites Jephthah and his men killed at the fords of the Jordan exceeded the number of Ammonites they had just slaughtered, but again, Jephthah did not pick the fight. It’s also possible Ephraim had become so numerous and feisty that they needed culling to keep their ambitions in check.

A further irony involves tactics. Ephraim had blocked the fords of the Jordan twice before in Judges and slaughtered anyone trying to escape east over the river. Here Jephthah did the same thing in reverse as the Ephraimites fled west to their homes on the other side of the Jordan. Given his awareness of Israelite history, this may even have been intentional, but finally the questionable tactics Ephraim had used against others came back to bite them.

We reap what we sow, right? Worse, they died for lisping, and the word “Shibboleth” crept into our English dictionaries, meaning any custom or expression that distinguishes one group of people from another. In Hebrew, the word has a double meaning: either “stream” or “ear of corn”. Say it right, and you get to cross the stream. Say it wrong, and you’re cut down like harvested corn.

Okay, maybe I’m reading a little too much into that.

Judges 12:7 — A Short Run

“Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.”

The formula we have seen all through Judges reappears here at the end of Jephthah’s story: the number of years he judged Israel, followed by his death and burial. Six years is the shortest run of all twelve judges. I doubt that’s a reflection on Jephthah. More likely it’s an indication of his age. We know that at the time he defeated Ammon, he had no expectation of being able to sire more children, unlike Gideon and many of the judges before and after him, who produced ridiculous numbers. Jephthah may well have been one of the oldest men to lead Israel since Joshua.